Photo/Illutration Submerged railway tracks in Lake Shikaribetsuko in Shikaoi, Hokkaido, on July 25 (Takayuki Kakuno)

SHIKAOI, Hokkaido—Tourists are flocking to a “sky-high lake” surrounded by mountains here to see what locals have long considered a rather mundane object.

On sunny and windless days, railroad tracks appear to run from a quiet shore straight into the heart of crystal-clear Lake Shikaribetsuko.

The tracks on the lake on the southern tip of the Daisetsuzan National Park have been around for decades. They are used as a ramp to move sightseeing boats out of the water before the lake freezes solid in winter.

The end of the tracks juts out to the shore.

But around 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, someone posted a photo of the submerged tracks on social media. This caused a stir because they resembled a scene from “Spirited Away,” the animated blockbuster by Hayao Miyazaki.

The tracks soon gained the moniker of the “lake-bottom line” and were included in a tourism route offered by a travel agency.

The location was also featured in travel magazines and has become a prominent sightseeing spot around Shikaribetsuko, the highest-altitude lake in Hokkaido.

According to Hotel Fusui in the Shikaribetsuko lakeside hot spring resort, which operates a pleasure boat on the lake, the tracks are about 20 meters long and were placed there around 1954.

“For us, it is just an ordinary view we see every day, so we never thought it would go viral on such a scale,” said Takaki Inoue, 65, senior general manager of the hotel. “It was a fresh reminder that the most familiar things can become tourism resources.”

The area has seen a rapid increase in tourists, especially young ones, he said.

But the influx of visitors has created challenges.

There are only about 10 parking spaces at the site, which is also the starting point of a popular hiking trail leading to Mount Hakuunzan.

On weekends and other occasions, some parked cars jut out into a Hokkaido prefectural road that has poor visibility.

Hotel Fusui and the Shikaoi tourist association have opted not to promote the submerged tracks. Instead, they are calling on visitors to park their cars in the downtown area of the hot spring resort about 1 kilometer away and walk along an old road by the shore.

“It is important to prevent overtourism in a small sightseeing spot,” Inoue said. “It is also fun just walking along and enjoying the scenery of the shores. We hope people learn about the charms of Lake Shikaribetsuko besides the lake-bottom line and come back a couple of times.”

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